Nobuyuki Idei, Sony’s President, is speaking to Norio Ohga.
“Norio, you have been working in Sony for quite some time, right?”
Norio Ohga’s heart skipped a beat. It sounded like he is going to be asked to leave.
“President, I had been with Sony since I started working.”
“Yes. All of us can see your contribution to Sony. During Sony’s tough times, you took over the role of President, and turned Columbia Pictures, a loss-making entity, around. You had done more than what we had expected of you.” Nobuyuki Idei said.
“That’s because you had guided us in the right direction. All I did was to execute your orders.” Norio Ohga modestly replied. Columbia Pictures can be profitable is because the value of their copyrights had increased.
Why did the value of the copyrights increase? That’s because of the appearance of VCDs and DVDs, and Sony had sold tons of movie discs.
Norio Ohga had to thank Feng Yu, the person he hated the most, for inventing the VCD player. If not, all these VCDs will not be sold.
“You had ordered the portable music player department to develop MP3 players. Does that mean you also think MP3 player will replace all other music players?”
“That’s right. Other than MD players, our Walkman and CD player’s sales are lagging behind Aiwa. Even Panasonic, which was once suppressed by us, had taken away some of our market shares. All these products cannot be compared to the MP3 player. The only flaw with the MP3 player is the music quality. Other than that, it is more advance in all aspects.”
“Oh? More advanced in all aspects? I don’t think so… Can MP3 record? Don’t forget our MD player’s advantage of recording music and sounds.”
Norio Ohga’s eyes lit up. He knows how to get Sony out of its sticky situation now.
“Thank you, President, for your guidance. I know what to do now. Sony’s MP3 players will definitely exceed Aiwa in the future! We will be the leader in portable music player again!”
……
“Chairman, we had received a piece of good news. There are some problems with Aiwa’s MP3 player’s sales!” Norio Ohga’s assistant rushed into his office excitedly.
“Oh? What happened?” Norio Ohga got excited too. It will be Sony’s opportunity if something happened to their competitors. His biggest wish is there are problems with Aiwa’s MP3 player’s quality!
“They had run out of stocks!”
Norio Ohga’s face changed. “They had sold out their MP3 players, and you are saying this is a piece of good news?!”
“But after they run out of stocks, the demand for MP3 players is still increasing. Do you think the consumers will buy our products if they cannot get Aiwa’s MP3 players?” Norio Ohga’s assistant asked excitedly. This time, Sony’s MP3 player’s sales will shoot up.
Norio Ohga is furious. Since when Sony must pick up the leftovers from Aiwa? We have always been Aiwa’s main competitor, and we will defeat them.
Just like the video game console, when Nintendo ditched us aside, we developed our own console, and our market share had overtaken Nintendo now.
Now, instead of thinking about how to improve our products to beat Aiwa, you are celebrating because they had sold out all their stocks?!
Norio Ohgo is sick of this assistant. He decided to look for his replacement and send him to a subsidiary for retraining.
“Alright. I know about this. Inform our factories to increase production and lower the cost. We will seize this opportunity to get the market share.” Norio Ohga waved his hand impatiently.
Although Norio Ohga dislikes using this method, he had to admit this is a good opportunity for Sony to increase its MP3 player’s sales.
When a company’s product sales and market share increases, it can be used as a form of marketing. They can inform their potential customers that many people had bought our products, and there must be a reason for that. It’s up to the consumers to guess the reason.
Anyway, Sony will never admit that their sales went up because their competitor had run out of stocks to sell.
…….
“Chairman, Sony had suddenly increased their MP3 player’s advertisements, and started to stock up their MP3 players in the cities.” Heitaro Nakajima’s assistant reported.
“Really? What are our pre-order figures now?” Heitaro Nakajima calmly asked.
“At 9 am this morning, there are 86,123 pre-orders.”
“Ok. There is nothing to worry about. Inform the marketing department to start.”
Heitaro Nakajima knew once Aiwa runs out of stocks, Sony will increase their marketing to snatch the market share.
But Heitaro Nakajima will never let Sony succeed. Even if Aiwa does not have MP3 players to sell, we can also stop you all!
…….
Sony’s retail stores are very crowded today. Many people had rushed into their stores with Sony’s MP3 players for refunds.
“I want a refund! What rubbish is this?! How can you all sell this trash at such high prices?!”
“That’s right! This player’s functions and quality cannot be compared to Aiwa, and the design is too ugly!”
“High-quality audio?! You all dare to claim this is high-quality audio?! I had bought this player to listen to music. Listen to this! This is torture!”
“Refund! Refund!”
Sony’s retail store’s manager is panicking. What’s wrong? Why did so many customers demanding refunds once they open their doors? If this carries on, which customer will buy their products?!
If these customers report to the media, it will be a severe blow to Sony’s brand reputation, and he will be kicked out of the store.
The manager felt his soul had left him when the reporters arrived with cameras to film the chaotic scene. He immediately gets his staff to stop the reporters, but it’s too late.
…….
Norio Ohga is in his office watching the news when he suddenly saw a live segment where a reporter is conducting an interview. The interview is in Sony’s retail store.
Yes… the store is packed with people. Is this arranged by the Public Relations department? Good job. Now, consumers will think Sony’s products are still popular.
But soon, Norio Ohga realized something was off. Why is the store manager running out of the store with his staff to block the reporter? Why are the customers holding up Sony’s MP3 player’s box and demanding refunds?!
What is going on? What is the Public Relations department doing? How can such things be reported on live TV?!
Before Norio Ohga can call the person in charge of Public Relations into his office, he heard the shouting from the TV. “Sony had sold us defective goods! We want our money back! Refund us!”
Norio Ohga felt his blood pressure rising. Who says our products are defective?!
The quality checks at Sony’s factories must be punished! This is destroying Sony’s brand!
Akio Morita
